Network-oriented planning of cross-border capacity provision to increase resilience and improve performance

In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive simulation and optimization approach to determine the benefits of cross-border capacity provision in a redesigned European air traffic management (ATM) value chain. We create a range of different scenarios for the day of operations (tactical level), which represent materializations of traffic levels and distributions, to analyse how the availability of cross-border capacity provision affects key performance indicators such as flight delay, additional fuel consumption (from re-routings) and the overall cost of the system. Based on how different capacity decisions perform in these scenarios, at the strategic level we infer the number of air traffic controllers (ATCOs) that might provide cross-border services for each air navigation service provider (ANSP). We apply the modelling approach to a large-scale case study covering traffic on the busiest day in Europe in 2018 across almost the full ECAC-area in order to show the potential effects of different design options for cross-border capacity provision. These design options differ in the extent of cross-border collaboration, e.g., sharing agreements within or across ANSPs. One important result is that cross-border capacity sharing can realize very low remaining levels of displacement cost while requiring only a small portion (less than 3%) of resources to be reserved for capacity sharing. Furthermore, next to reducing overall network cost, having cross-border capacity provision also results in a more stable network performance (in terms of flight delays and re-routings) in the case study